Love The Cup

Sons & Daughters have been accused of being more American than the Americans, and certainly a first listen to their debut album brings to mind any combination of words like blues, funk, country, rock, hyphenated with “melee”, but they lend their own distinctive flavor to the obvious musical influences.

For starters, they have that sexy-female-singer-with-Scottish-accent thing going on that made Garbage the stuff of many wet dreams for years. Singing with an accent, of course, gives their ultra-American sound a lovely twist, making it instantly recognizable.

Sons & Daughters will no doubt be seeing their share of “Next Big Thing” magazine covers in the near future, and their extended touring with Franz Ferdinand should further that cause, but the members’ musical pedigree and experience playing in bands like Arab Strap should ensure they survive the hype.

They are a cracking live band and have been selling out gigs for quite a while now, not only in their native Glasgow, so expectations are high. Thankfully this mini-album shows that they really can deliver the goods. However, its main shortcoming is its short-ness.

‘Fight’, a stomping girl/boy-vocals piece gets it off to a great start and, although they are by no means rewriting the history of rock, each of the seven tracks is well-crafted and performed. This is a promising debut, from the thick staccato beat of ‘Johnny Cash’, where the band almost get carried away with their own screaming enthusiasm, via the ceili-feel of ‘Blood’, to the quirky country-ballad ‘Awkward Duet, where the record concludes after 25 minutes, leaving you begging for more.